It only lasted a few years, but AIP kicked off
the Beach Party films with this one. For those of us of a certain age, they
made an indelible impression in our brain. Bikinis, sand, surfing and music.
The times they were a-changing. Teenagers were going to the movies in droves
and the studios caught on with fare that appealed to them whether in horror,
sci-fi or girls, girls, girls. AIP figured that out faster than the big studios
and made a series of these before they petered out. The difference between
these and films about teenagers from just a few years previously was enormous.
These teenagers were having fun and getting laid. Well, the laid was implied.
The King and Queen of these films were Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello,
as cute a couple as you can imagine. Avalon was a teen pop star already with
a few number one hits - Venus and Why - while Annette had been a popular
Mouseketeer with Disney. She was all grown up now, but apparently Walt was
not happy with her doing this film and especially in her two-piece bathing
suit.
AIP loads the frame with young attractive
actors - Jody McCrae - son of Joel being one - all as fit as a steam pipe
- but they also bring on a few actors to have adult supervision. Bob Cummings,
Dorothy Malone (of Big Sleep fame) and Morey Amsterdam from the Dick Van
Dyke Show. Best is a last-minute cameo from Vincent Price promoting AIP's
next Poe film, The Haunted Palace. Musically there is the legendary
Dick Dale. Dale invented the Surf Rock genre and had already released Let's
Go Trippin' and Miserlou - his reverb guitar still sounds better than anything
today. They don't really let him go loose here though. Frankie sings a song
as does Annette. Those were just different times. Easy to make fun of now
because they are soooo corny but at the time they were fresh.
Plot such as it is. Frankie thinks he is
getting laid on the weekend. A loss of innocence for both him and Annette.
Singing "Vacation is here. Beach party tonight". A secluded beach house just
for the two of them. This being 1963, that does not happen of course. The
house is full of their friends. As Annette tells a friend, "I didn't think
I could trust myself being alone with him". This pisses off Frankie and so
he plays up to another girl (Hungarian Eva Six who could make a stove sweat)
- and then Annette does the same with Bob Cummings. Bob Cummings with a Rutherford
Hayes styled beard till he shaves it off later. He is a professor studying
the mating rituals of teenagers that he compares to primate tribes. His assistant
is Malone. There is a motorcycle gang - the Rats and the Mice - in which
Harvey Lembeck does his best Brando parody from The Wild One. Music, dancing,
surfing. Life was good. Not as painful as I expected. A few well-placed jokes.
